what is unlikely jedi?

Unlikely Jedi is an online comic following the adventures of three friends in the real world who just happen to be Jedi. But how can that be? Star Wars is a work of fiction after all... or perhaps George Lucas knows something we don't?

Taking inspiration from Star Wars and superhero mythology, Unlikely Jedi answers the question every Star Wars fan asks: "what would you do if the Force was real?"

what's it about?

Okay, so now you've watched THAT awesomeness, you have a handle on who the Unlikely Jedi are. The first chapter in the story of the Unlikely Jedi webcomic is called "Return of the French Guy", which acts as both prequel and sequel to The Unwritten Rule Trilogy, with the narrative jumping back and forth between the life-changing events surrounding the Unlikely Jedi's Force-powered ‘awakening’ and the present day, where they are forced to confront the mistakes of the past and struggle through conflict and hilarity to find their place in a world that will never understand them.

cast of characters

history

"Return of the French Guy" started out as a feature-length sequel to "The Unwritten Rule Trilogy", which was a series of Star Wars fan films we made back in 2003 and 2004. It started out as just a single film - "Shotgun" - but we enjoyed making it so much and it was so well received by our friends and the fan film community that we were compelled to make more. By the time we completed "Ex", the third part in the trilogy, we already had ideas for a two-hour epic that would explore the questions we'd always avoided - who were these guys? How can they use the Force? Where did they get lightsabers? What the hell is going on?! "Return of the French Guy" was meant to answer those questions.

Unfortunately, we were in our final years of university and our coursework had to take priority. Once we graduated, life just sort of swept us away from one another, and despite a deep desire to tell this story, we missed our window. So for the past few years we've been trying to figure out an alternative way of telling this story that doesn’t require taking a few months off work to shoot a film. A couple of years ago we realised that it would make an amazing episodic story, and a graphic novel/comic was the perfect fit.

We began rewriting the script to fit a 4-6 panel format designed to be released in biweekly instalments, but we still had one fundamental problem: we can’t draw! So we started searching for artists who would design the characters and create a library of assets that we could use to piece each page together ourselves. Some very kind and talented artists donated their time and efforts to this endeavour, but it was impossible to get them as invested in the project as we wanted them to be. So despite the best of intentions, that idea ultimately failed.

And then crowd funding happened.

BOOM! It was everywhere! And suddenly this story that we'd been trying to tell for years and had all but given up on, suddenly and unexpectedly had one last hope.

Recruiting an amazing artist in Abel Garcia, we first took to Kickstarter with an inevitably flawed vision of raising the money to make the entirety of the story. Realising that would fail, we started a new project on Indiegogo with the far more achievable goal of funding only the first part of the story, while maintaining- and even improving- the offered rewards. While we didn't hit 100%, we did get to keep whatever we made, and it was just enough to provide all the rewards and completely finish Issue 1!

So, once we finished Issue 1 and got it out to everyone that contributed to the Indiegogo campaign's success, we decided to follow the original plan and put it up online for everyone to enjoy.

the future

Getting Issue 1 made was a lot of work, and unfortunately we weren't able to raise enough money to make Issue 2 so soon after issue 1, so we took a year off to concentrate on our day jobs and families, and figure out the next step. In that time we've tweaked the script and our delivery expectations, and have teamed up with Patreonto come up with a new plan that will keep new pages of Unlikely Jedi coming out regularly for the foreseeable future. How often they come out is entirely up to you!​At a bare minimum, we'll be releasing a new page every month; but the more supporters we have signing up, the more often we'll be able to do it. The release schedule is completely in your hands!

who are we?

how can i support unlikely jedi?

Thank you SO MUCH for asking that question! Without people like you, Unlikely Jedi simply wouldn't exist.

There are three ways you can support Unlikely Jedi:

Donate - hit the Donate button at the bottom of the site. $20 gets us a new page, and there are around 28 pages per issue - that's about $840 needed per issue. You can even set up a monthly donation, if you're feeling particularly generous!

Become a supporter on Patreon - Support us monthly through Patreon, a site dedicated to giving creators the funding they need to achieve their goals!

Share - use our social media links to share the comic with your friends on Twitter, Facebook and Google+. Help us build up an audience and take over the world bring in more donations and contributions!

Unlikely Jedi is a not-for-profit homage to the cultural phenomenon that is Star Wars. The story does not take place in the Star Wars universe, nor does it contain any characters created by LucasFilm Ltd. Unlikely Jedi is not made, distributed, or supported by LucasFilm Ltd. and/or its licensors.